Venezuela

What Everyone Needs to Know®

Miguel Tinker Salas

Description

Among the top ten oil exporters in the world and a founding member of OPEC, Venezuela currently supplies 11 percent of U.S. crude oil imports. But when the country elected the fiery populist politician Hugo Chavez in 1998, tensions rose with this key trading partner and relations have been strained ever since.

In this concise, accessible addition to Oxford's What Everyone Needs to Know® series, Miguel Tinker Salas -- a native of Venezuela who has written extensively about the country -- takes a broadly chronological approach that focuses especially on oil and its effects on Venezuela's politics, economy, culture, and international relations. After an introductory section that discusses the legacy of Spanish colonialism, Tinker Salas explores the "The Era of the Gusher," a period which began with the discovery of oil in the early twentieth century, encompassed the mid-century development and nationalization of the industry, and ended with a change of government in 1989 in response to widespread protests. The third section provides a detailed discussion of Hugo Chavez-his rise to power, his domestic political and economic policies, and his high-profile forays into international relations-as well as surveying the current landscape of Venezuela in the wake of Chavez's death in March 2013. Arranged in a question-and-answer format that allows readers to search topics of particular interest, the book covers questions such as, who is Simón Bolívar and why is he called the George Washington of Latin America? How did the discovery of oil change Venezuela's relationship to the U.S.? What forces where behind the coups of 1992? And how does Venezuela interact with China, Russia, and Iran?

Informative, engaging, and written by a leading expert on the country, Venezuela: What Everyone Needs to Know® offers an authoritative guide to an increasingly important player on the world stage.

What Everyone Needs to Know® is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.

Venezuela

What Everyone Needs to Know®

Miguel Tinker Salas

Table of Contents

I. Venezuela before Oil (General Background, History, Major Figures)II. The Era of the Gusher, 1914-1989III. Electoral Revolution: The Rise of Hugo Chavez Domestic Politics Social Policy Economics The Opposition U.S. and Venezuela Venezuela and Latin America Venezuela and the World The Future

Venezuela

What Everyone Needs to Know®

Miguel Tinker Salas

Author Information

Miguel Tinker Salas is Farmer Chair in Latin American History and Professor of History and Chicano/a Studies at Pomona College. He is the author of The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture and Society in Venezuela.

Venezuela

What Everyone Needs to Know®

Miguel Tinker Salas

Reviews and Awards

"In this broad, accessible overview of the country's political history, Salas finds the roots of most, but not all, of today's problems in the rule of Hugo Chavez, who served as Venezuela's president from 1999 until his death in 2013." --Foreign Affairs

"This new entry in Oxford's ongoing series [is] an especially timely and valuable resource...Using a question-and-answer format that aids in scanning and searching, Salas offers an informative overview of his native country's history...Key context on a political hot spot." --Library Journal

"This is not just a reference book; it is an easily accessible history of the country of Venezuela. Formatted into questions and answers, Salas has written a fair-minded text for the reader interested in knowing more about the country's history and politics or the researcher looking for an up-to-date reference work. Every popular movement, every coup, and every major economic influence important to the nation of Venezuela is discussed here." --Counterpunch